The War on Immigrants
Texas State Police Purchased Israeli Phone-Tracking Software for “Border Emergency”
The software was licensed as part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s troubled Operation Lone Star border crackdown.
Sam Biddle
Sam Biddle is a technology reporter focusing on issues of surveillance, privacy, and corporate power. He was previously a senior writer at Gawker, and his work has also appeared in GQ, Vice, and the New York Times magazine, among other outlets.
Contacts:
- sam.biddle@theintercept.com
- @sambiddle.99 on Signal
- @sambiddle.com on Bluesky
- @samfbiddle on X
Posts:
Pentagon Joins Elon Musk’s War Against Plane Tracking
The U.S. military’s elite special operations command doesn’t want its planes tracked, according to a procurement document.
The War on Immigrants
LexisNexis Is Selling Your Personal Data to ICE So It Can Try to Predict Crimes
ICE uses LexisNexis to track people's cars, gather information on people, and make arrests for its deportation machine, according to a contract.
Pentagon’s Secret Service Trawls Social Media for Mean Tweets About Generals
A document shows the Protective Services Battalion uses sophisticated surveillance tools that can pinpoint anyone’s location.
Algorithm Used in Jordanian World Bank Aid Program Stiffs the Poorest
The algorithm used for the cash relief program is broken, a Human Rights Watch report found.
The End of Roe
U.S. Marshals Spied on Abortion Protesters Using Dataminr
Twitter’s “official partner” monitored the precise time and location of post-Roe demonstrations, internal emails show.
Can the Pentagon Use ChatGPT? OpenAI Won’t Answer.
The AI company is silent on ChatGPT’s use by a military intelligence agency despite an explicit ban in its ethics policy.
Army Info War Division Wants Social Media Surveillance to Protect “NATO Brand”
An Army Cyber Command official sought military contractors that could help “attack, defend, influence, and operate” on global social media.
Georgia National Guard Will Use Phone Location Tracking to Recruit High School Children
Federal contract materials outline plans to geofence 67 different public high schools throughout the state and to target phones with recruitment ads.
Anti-Palestinian Hate on Social Media Is Growing, Says a Facebook Partner
Social media users in Israel are increasingly using platforms like Facebook and Instagram to launch hate speech at Palestinians.